Permutation

I told myself recently that we need to be mindful of the easter eggs and minute details found here. The story from Scott is confusing enough... With all the extra/background content we have, whoa. It's a jumble. I mean, I am all for the eternal speculation and attempt to make sense of it all (and have fun), but just have to remember that a lot of what we deal with here won't be acknowledged in the following film(s). 

But yes, chli, your post seems to sum up what we were shown in Covenant pretty darn well. By the time David got to really working on the Neo-/Xenomorphs, he had no way of getting to Engineer DNA. He also had only so much that he could do with Shaw. From there, he had to result to insects and plants to try and complete his puzzle. I mean, I'll be damned though because he supposedly improved what the Engineers had done with the Xenomorph. He did it with almost none of the advantages that the Engineers might have had!

cuponator3000

I agree. It seems unnecessary to bring in living (or worse reanimated) engineers in the equation. He came as far as he could without human (or humanoid) DNA (hosts) to blend with his creation.

It seems (when looking at the extras on the blu-ray) that he got the xenomorph-like creature's exoskeleton through crossbreeding with bugs.

Good catch chli.

"If you listen to Scott’s audio commentary to AC, we get the information that creatures seen in David’s lab are “permutations” and the result of a lack of human DNA."

I remember David called the creatures "unions" and, yes, many were different organisms from what a humanoid host should provide based on what we saw in other films.

chli said, "I agree. It seems unnecessary to bring in living (or worse reanimated) engineers in the equation. He came as far as he could without human (or humanoid) DNA (hosts) to blend with his creation."

I like this analysis and this is the one I will personally witness, unless more information is provided in Alien: Awakening.  It would be very disrespectful for our answers to our questions are scoured across the internet by the people who did work on Alien: Covenant.

I will accept that there are answers out there on the internet, but I don't plan on looking for them.  I'll just read about them if people post them on A:C.  I'm not dedicating my life to finding more answers about Alien: Covenant.  Apparently there are answers out there.

chli, I'm glad someone is taking the movie for what it is.

Ingeniero

Yes, and to me, the most reasonable interpretation for the mounted engineer in David's lab is that he found a relatively "good looking" corpse in the plaza (there apparently were about 2 million to choose from), not too deformed by the pathogenic cloud? Also, when the Covenant crew get to see them (and we in the audience), ten years have passed . . .

I Moon Girl

Well, I don't mind speculations, but sometimes I feel that they are a bit too fantastic. :) I think the best sci-fi movies are the ones which try to get an air of realism to them (which I think Scott tries to do).